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Sidney Bryan Jeffreys, a 1931 graduate of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State
University (Virginia Tech) and the founder of Jeffreys Engineering and Equipment Company
(Jeeco), was born in Chase City, Virginia in 1909. After graduating from the Blackstone
Military Academy (Nottoway County, Virginia), Jeffreys attended Virginia Polytechnic
Instittue. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in industrial engineering in 1931, then
obtained a master's degree in business and engineering administration from the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology the following year. In the meantime, he had married Angie Eliza
Turner in 1931, and the couple would have two children. (Following Angie Jeffreys' 1972
death, he would marry Gwendolyn Goodson Powell.)

Jeffreys began his career at the Virginia State Chamber of Commerce in 1933, working with
the membership and serving as a liaison. The following year, he went to work in production
engineering sales and service for Wright Aeronautical Corporation. In 1938, he joined
Jeffreys Lumber Company of Raleigh, North Carolina, a family-run lumber manufacturing
business, as secretary, general manager, and director. During (and after) these years, he
also served as secretary and director of Jeffreys-Spaulding Manufacturing of Chase City.
(The company merged with Georgia Pacific in 1965). Finally, in 1946, Jeffreys founded
Jeffreys Engineering and Equipment Company (Jeeco) in Raleigh. Two years later, he moved the
company to Greensboro, North Carolina. Jeffreys sold controlling interest in the corporation
and retired in 1976.

As an alumnus of Virginia Tech, Jeffreys maintained an active relationship with his alma
mater. He was a member of the Hokie Club, the Founders Century Club, and the Committee of
100. He served as permanent secretary and treasurer of the Class of 1931, served on the
V.P.I. Educational Foundation, and initiated the fund for a named professorship for the
Industrial Engineering and Operations Research Department. In 1981, he was honored as
College of Engineering Distinguised Alumnus.

In addition to these activities, Jeffreys participated in a number of civic and
professional organizations.

This collection contains the Virgina Tech-related papers of Sidney B. Jeffreys, a 1931
graduate of the university who, as an alumnus, played an active role in promoting and
developing the university. The collection contains papers relating both to Jeffreys' years
as a student and as an alumnus. Included are coursework, extracurricular ephemera,
correspondence, reports, and printed materials. Among the correspondence in the alumnus
series papers are letters from a number of university and alumni association officials,
including H. B. "Puss" Redd, Paul Deering, Paul Torgersen, T. Marshall Hahn, and William E.
Lavery.

Series I. Student Papers, 1927-1931. This series contains papers arising from Jeffreys'
academic and extracurricular activities while a student at Virginia Tech. Included is a an
account--in diary form, but apparently written at the end of the academic year--chronicling
Jeffreys' experiences as a freshman cadet. The series also includes instructions for the
conduct of cadet parades and various pieces of memorabilia, including dance cards,
invitations, menus, programs, class schedules, and other ephemera. Jeffreys' coursework is
represented in drafting assignments, class notes, and graded papers.

Series II. Alumnus Papers, 1933-1985. The materials in this series reflect Jeffreys'
active, ongoing interest in his alma mater. The series includes correspondence with officers
of the alumni assocation and various university officials. Also included is correspondence
between the school and Jeffreys company, Jeeco, regarding purchases as well as efforts to
place recent Virginia Tech graduates in Jeeco company positions. The series includes files
devoted to campus-related organizations to which Jeffreys belonged, including Alpha Pi Mu,
Pi Kappa Alpha, and the Committee of 100. Much of the material relates to Jeffreys' support
of the school, both as a financial donor and as a booster. Thus, the papers contain reports
on alumni fundraising efforts, on Jeffreys' many visits to campus, his ongoing development
work with the Engineering Department, and his service in representing the university in
presidential inaugurations at Guilford College and Salem Academy and College. A few files at
the end of the series relate more personally to Jeffreys and include printed materials and
correspondence about his interest in the Eli Whitney musket; copies of Virginia Tech printed
materials in which he is mentioned; and a few pieces of personal correspondence, much of
which is from Lorana T. Moomaw and James G. Maley.